(
September 22 ,
1839 –
June 22 ,
1918 ) was an American
Roman Catholic Archbishop , born in
Ballyshannon ,
County Donegal ,
Ireland . His family emigrated to
America when he was seven years old. He was educated at
Saint Charles's College ,
Ellicott City, Maryland , and at
Saint Mary's Seminary ,
Baltimore , and in
1866 was ordained a priest and made curate of St Patrick's,
Washington, D.C. On
August 25 ,
1878 he was consecrated
Bishop Of Richmond , to succeed
James Gibbons , and he had established the Confraternity of the Holy Ghost in that diocese, and founded schools and churches for blacks before his appointment as first rector of the
Catholic University , Washington, D.C., in
1886 , and his appointment in
1888 to the see of Ajasso. He did much to upbuild the Catholic University, but his democratic and liberal policy made him enemies at
Rome , whence there came in
1896 a request for his resignation of the rectorate, and where he spent the years
1897 to
1900 as canon of
St. John Lateran , assistant bishop at the pontifical throne, and counsellor to the
Propaganda . In 1900 he was consecrated
Archbishop Of Dubuque, Iowa . He took a prominent part in the
Catholic Young Men's National Union and in the
Total Abstinence Union Of North America ; and was in general charge of the Catholic delegation to the Worlds Parliament of Religions held at the
Columbian Exposition In 1893 . He lectured widely on
Temperance , education and American institutions, and in 1890 was
Dudleian lecturer at
Harvard University .
A selection from his writings and addresses was edited by
Maurice Francis Egan under the title ''Onward and Upward: A Year Book'' (Baltimore, 1902).
